Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll

Photography by Alfred Wertheimer

In early 1956, an RCA Victor publicist asked Alfred Wertheimer to photograph an up-and-coming crooner from Memphis. Little did Wertheimer know that this would be the job of his life: just 21 years old, Elvis Presley was—as we now know—about to become a legend. Trailing him like a shadow, Wertheimer was given unlimited scope to get up close and personal.

Wertheimer’s Elvis project immortalized a young man in the process of making history. Wertheimer took nearly 3,000 photographs of Presley that year, creating a portrait of a man poised on the brink of superstardom. Though many of Wertheimer’s photos of Elvis are among the best known, nearly half of the photographs in this book have never been published before.

Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll Collector’s Edition is limited to just 1,706 books (there was also an imprint of 250 Art Editions produced—each accompanied by a silver gelatin fine-art print). Every book is personally signed by Alfred Wertheimer and is presented in a clamshell box. Each chapter is illustrated with an original poster from Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress print shops in America.